Linda Holman, a divorcee of three grown children, had to learn how to be a “mom” again after her daughter, Amy, and son-in-law were incarcerated.

Holman said she had no idea the challenges she and the children — ages 11, 8, 7, and 6 — would face during the 1 1/2 years her daughter was in prison.

“It was an adjustment. They cried for (Amy) a lot at night. They asked how much longer before she would be home,” said Holman, of Muskegon. “Sometimes they said, ‘You’re not my mom.’ I realized I was in over my head,” she said.

Holman said she received help from neighbors and her other children shortly thereafter.

While Amy Jones served time for check fraud, and her husband Todd Jones went to prison for drug possession, Holman faithfully brought the children and other relatives to visit them at the various Michigan facilities where they served — from Ypsilanti to Huron Valley.

Amy, 27, enjoyed seeing family, but when the visits became too much for the children, she asked that they not visit so often.

“Having visitors lifted my spirit and showed me that I do have people out here to care for me,” she said.

But Todd, 41, had a different reaction. “Sometimes I hated it because it got me more down and depressed” because he could not leave with them, he said.

Last fall, the family reunited and are now living under one roof. After the welcome home parties, their lives did not go back to “normal.” Instead, the family is in transition, living within parole requirements, and Amy and Todd adjusting to marriage and parenting again.

“The hardest thing about being out is adjusting with the kids again,” said Amy, “getting them to trust me again, reassuring them that I’m not going anywhere.”